Birth certificate Post Reply

[Newish to clapham]

Hello, just wondering if anyone has any ideas as to the quickest way to get my new baby's birth certificate - we live in sw11 but would love to bring our baby back to Ireland for a christening in November but can only get an appointment in Vauxhall for mid November and are trying a few schools but it's very difficult to get an appointment? I'm hoping someone may be able to point me in the right direction many thanks

[pepper]

So after birth certificate you need a passport. if you are planning to get an Irish one, I can only say that they are really good. We had the same situation, when we show our flight ticket, the passport was done in a few days.

[papinian]

Petter: Your original post is a bit unclear. I understand from the context that the issue is not getting a birth certificate (can be done online (http://www.gro.gov.uk/gro/content/certi ... efault.asp) but rather registering your child's birth in the first place. I don't know how long the wait is for an appointment to register your baby's birth, but six weeks seems ridiculous, particular as it is the law that all births in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must be registered within 42 days of the child being born.

I don't understand your reference to Vauxhall as the Lambeth registry of births is at Lambeth Town Hall in Brixton. I suggest that you call them on 0207 926 9420.

[Newish to clapham]

Sorry - just to clear up any confusion Lambeth town hall can't give me an appointment until 10 November - I've called them as this is outside the 42 days required and they've said there is nothing they can do and the 42 days doesn't really matter?! The children's centres at jubilee and lark hall said I'm not within their area so they won't do it. Hiberfield cc you call on a Monday at 8.30 and try to get one of the 7 appointments for that Friday - spent the last 2 Monday's dialling these (from 3 phones) and can't get through. Loughborough cc said I can go tomorrow at 9am and they take the first 8/9 people in the queue (lady said there were 18 people in the queue last week!)! (I'm recovering from a c-section and have a toddler but will try this and try to get there very early but it seems like a crazy situation to put new parents into?!). If anyone has any better ideas please let me know

[DearKitty]

I had the same problem last year and i queued up at Hitherfield Children's Centre. It takes ages as each birth registration took 20-30 minutes by the time they filled out all the forms (and they started late) so between turning up early to be sure of being seen and waiting for my slot (i was 6th in the queue) i was there for over 3 hours.
They had a milkspot at the same time so i was able to join that group while i waited so it worked out ok.
I just checked their website and it now says they take bookings so it might be worth calling them to see if you can get an appointment
https://fluencycontent-schoolwebsite.ne ... ations.pdf

Getting Irish passport afterwards was easy and they turned it around in a few days.
But FYI - you don't need passport for baby to travel with Aer Lingus between UK and Ireland (other airlines policy is less clear). It is clearly stated on their website http://www.aerlingus.com/travelinformat ... passports/
Citizens of Ireland and the UK under the age of 16 do not need a photo ID if travelling with their parent/guardian but we recommend that they carry some form of identification (e.g. birth certificate, bus pass or student card) in case this is requested by the immigration authorities at entry.
Apparently nobody actually checks and you can use your hospital discharge papers if they do ask and you haven't got birth cert yet. So that's another potential solution for you.

[Esbek]

We were in a similar situation last year. We first got an appointment at Larkhall (and we don't live anywhere near them) but once there they said they had to reschedule the appointments due to a computer failure. The new appointment was almost three weeks away. So we got an appointment within three days at Wandsworth Council with the online booking. Wandsworth said it might take a while to get the certificate as they had to sort it out with Lambeth Council- baby born in St Thomas'). We received the certificate in about 10 days, before the date of the rescheduled appointment at Larkhall. Now I am not sure whether that was pure luck but if all else fails, you can give Wandsworth a try.

[Esbek]

We were in a similar situation last year. We first got an appointment at Larkhall (and we don't live anywhere near) but once there they said they had to reschedule the appointments due to a computer failure. The new appointment was almost three weeks away. So we got an appointment within three days at Wandsworth Council with the online booking. Wandsworth said it might take a while for us to receive the certificate as they had to sort it out with Lambeth Council- baby born in St Thomas'). We received the certificate in about 10 days, before the date of the rescheduled appointment at Larkhall. Now I am not sure whether that was pure luck but if all else fails, you can give Wandsworth a try.

[papinian]

I am incredulous that Lambeth Council isn't organised enough to register births within the 42 days legally required. It's even worse that from what posters here say this level of delay seems to have become normalised.

If I were in Lambeth I would be emailing every council and also emailing whichever central government department oversees this and the news media.

I'm not political, but this sort of thing is the reason that many people don't vote Labour - it's not about policy it's because they don't trust Labour councils to get the basics done competently.

[melymoss]

Hi,

We lived in Lambeth when our son was born and also had a similar wait, so we were recommended to register him at Wandsworth registry office and they would send the details to Lambeth. This worked so much quicker for us, you can turn up at Wandsworth town hall for a drop in and be seen very quickly. I would recommend you try that. This was three years ago that we did this, but I'm sure it would still be the process now.

Then you can fly to Ireland on the birth certificate alone with most airlines (not Ryanair, but I think Aer lingus and BA permit this to Ireland (check their T&C's but we have done this)).

Hope it works out for you!

[DearKitty]

Also, if you are married, Dad can register the birth and you / baby don't need to be there. If you can send him that would be a lot easier than you queuing up with baby and toddler tomorrow morning.

[supergirl]

We did the same as Mellymoss 5 years ago. We received the certificate within 7 days despite them telling us it could take up to 4 weeks.
5 years ago Lambeth had a similar wait, shocking.

[Newish to clapham]

Thanks for all your help everyone! I Called wandsworth originally and they said they didn't do it for babies born in St Thomas hospital but I've gone online and booked an appointment now for this Friday anyway so fingers and toes crossed this works (husband will go if he can)! Such a crazy situation!! I'll keep you posted in case anyone else is having similar issues

[DearKitty]

Hi

Any up to date experience on registering / getting birth cert very quickly in Lambeth?

Baby not born yet but researching as we want to travel to see family quite quickly after the birth and will need birth cert asap to have time to get passport too.

Just checked Lambeth online bookings, and if baby was born today, the first available appointment to register the birth would be 1 March!
On my first i managed to queue up and get drop in at hitherfield cc but sounds like that is appointment based now too.
Anyone know of other drop in options?

Thanks

[Purple_sage]

We lived in Lambeth when our son was born and also had a similar wait, so we were recommended to register him at Wandsworth registry office and they would send the details to Lambeth. This worked so much quicker for us, you can turn up at Wandsworth town hall for a drop in and be seen very quickly. I would recommend you try that.

I second melymoss's recommendation. Both my kids were born in St. Thomas's but we registered their births with Wandsworth as it's much quicker. Was the midwives who suggested it to us. Our second was born just last year so it should still be ok to do so